ETHS Workshops and Programs

Cold War

The Teach Tennessee History website is designed to assist teachers in implementing the 2015 Tennessee State Social Studies Standards. Please use the menu links to the left to access the following resources for the Cold War:

ETHS Teaching Materials: Click on ETHS Teaching Materials to find student-friendly essays and classroom activities developed by ETHS staff. The essays and activities are designed based on the Tennessee Social Studies Standards. The downloadable teacher packets also include primary sources and images when available.

Standards 5.61-5.63

Students will examine the history of the United States since the conclusion of World War II.

5.61 Identify the reasons for the growth of suburbs, home ownership, mass media, Interstate Highway System, and a consumer society after the war. (C, E, G)

5.62 Examine the meaning and the main events of the “Cold War,” including the Space Race, Berlin Wall, arms race, Rosenbergs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. (C, E, H, P)

5.63 Trace the Korean War, its outcome, and the use of United Nations peacekeeping troops. (E, H, P)

Standards US.73-US.81

Cold War (1945-1975)

Students analyze the response of the United States to communism after World War II.

US.73 Describe the competition between the two “superpowers” of the United States and the Soviet Union in the areas of arms development, economic dominance, and ideology, including the role and location of NATO, SEATO, and the Warsaw Pact. (C, E, H, P)

US.75 Draw evidence from informational text to analyze the progression of American foreign policy from containment to retaliation and brinkmanship to the domino theory to flexible response. (H, P)

US.76 Analyze the causes and effects of the Red Scare that followed World War II, including Americans’ attitude toward the rise of communism in China, McCarthyism, blacklisting, Alger Hiss, J. Edgar Hoover, Estes Kefauver, and the Rosenbergs. (C, P, H, TN)

US.77 Describe the causes, course, and consequences of the Korean War, including the 38th parallel, Inchon, the entry of the Communist Chinese, the power struggle between MacArthur and President Truman, and the final disposition of the Koreas. (G, H, P)

US.78 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats of the fears of Americans about nuclear holocaust and debates over the stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons, including atomic testing, civil defense, bomb shelters, mutually assured destruction, impact of Sputnik, and President Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex. (C, H, P)

US.79 Describe the relationship between Cuba and the United States, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. (G, H, P)

US.80 Describe the causes, course, and consequences of the Vietnam War, including the following: (C, G, H, P)

Geneva Accords

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Tet Offensive

Roles played by Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon

Vietnamization

Ho Chi Minh

Bombing of Cambodia

Henry Kissinger

Napalm and Agent Orange

US. 81 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence evaluating the impact of the Vietnam War on the home front, including the Anti-War movement, draft by lottery, and the role of television and the media. (C, H, P)